It’s an instant winner: The Illinois Lottery launched “Spread the Word,” a $2 instant scratch-off game in which all profits go exclusively to HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention. So even if you lose, you win! The only Lottery of its kind in the nation, the game has raised more than $4.7 million since its first iteration in 2008. (Illinois ranks fifth for AIDS cases and seventh for HIV diagnoses; 20,000 people live with the virus in Chicago.) What’s more, the latter game offers a chance to educate and inspire, even with its campaign slogans: “Out of sight, out of mind—who cares if people suffer?…Scratch that, we can do more for HIV.”

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